Thursday, March 25, 2010

The San Francisco Garden Show opens March 24 - 28 2010 at the San Mateo Event Center

Tickets at the door are $ 20.00 and are good for the entire length of the show.

Let it be known that I take garden shows seriously.

I look at them with a critical eye towards detail, design, execution and overall expression.

From Chelsea to Boston to San Francisco, I evaluate them all the same, - are they executed exceedingly well and up to international standards.

The 2010 San Francisco Garden Show delivered the goods.

Upon entering the San Mateo venue ( unfortunately the show is not located in San Francisco) one is greeted by a fantastically large cube clothed with succulents, floating effortlessly on a watery moat.

A sculpture exhibition should have a space all its own rather than have some of the vendors hawking their wares within the same space. It lessens the intensity of the art and compromises the artistic integrity of the work being shown.

Unfortunately my photos of the grand prize winner, Garden Route, came out terrible.

They created a garden of native grasses , a grass covered core ten pergola and a patio devoid of any signs of life. It was a garden surviving after the apocalypse.

Not very inspiring really. Quite boring. But natives are the trend and I suppose the judges were drawn to it.

The market place was full of wonderful plant nurseries, garden accroutements and the occasionally displaced merchandiser selling bedding sheets and jewellery.

Below is one vendor show casing his grey water system.

In his exhibit he had this great plastic furniture. I thought they were holding tanks for grey water , but they weren’t.

I think this vendor could really be onto something if he were to make these pieces into functional working water holding systems.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Pink is a color that I am not terribly fond of.At all costs I try to avoid this color in my garden, in my house and especially in my clothing( as a red head pink does nothing but make me look like a ripening tomato)But when a client loves pink, to the point that she paints her house pink, well then a designer has to do what a designer has to do when asked to design a pink blooming garden.

Monday, March 15, 2010

This past weekend I was toiling in my potager garden getting it replanted for the upcoming late spring and summer harvests.

I’ve been harvesting lots of red curly and romaine lettuce as well as a hearty staple of cilantro and chives for my favorite Mexican taco recipe.

Yesterday I planted some more cilantro, basil, sweet peas and a tomato.

It’s still a little too early for the tomato seedlings to come out of the greenhouse but I thought I would give it a chance. I’ll surround it with a cloche to try to provide it with some added extra potection.

Along with the Cirque du Soleil Pot Head Series that I am crafting I am also making an Alice in Wonderland styled water feature. I sculpted four 30 - 34 inch tall Pitcher plants - sarracenia, and will fashion them into a sculptural fountain.

The colors that I choose to air brush on the pitcher plants are really out of this world,

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About Me

I'm irreverent.
Consumed by seeing art and design
in everyday life.
For a full BIO , with a list of publications, awards and philosophy see my website:-----------
WWW .dervissdesign.com-----------
Michelle has been sculpting gardens for the past 27 years.
She strongly believes that the most successful gardens are those that capture the spirit of the individual and the essence of the site .
Together in our unified efforts our team strives to create sculptural gardens that Inspirit the Heart, Imbue the Senses and Inspires the Eye of the Beholder.